Gio Was the Story

The story of Thursday’s game was not the Nats’ win, though that was needed. It was not the balanced effort, although that was nice. It was not the offensive production, home runs are cool.

The story was the eight inning one hitter by Gio Gonzalez Let me say that again, a one hitter. Why couldn’t we have had a one hitter in that 2-0 loss. The only hit was a 353 foot home run by Votto. This is a ball that is caught in 3/4th the outfield. If it is hit to center it is well before the warning track. The team also needed a stopper like performance against a very good hitting team, and he delivered.

Gio had some good games for the Nats including a complete game 5 hitter against these same Cards, and a 2 run, 3 walk, 1 hitter against he Braves last May. The game last night might be his best game as a National, but it is slightly overshadowed by the 8 runs. No, the Braves game last year was probably better against the division rival, but this was still fantastic. There have been whispers that Gio might have lost a little something. With that performance last night, he looks back on track.